Assessment Of Pharmacist’s Education To Reduce Metformin Adverse Reaction

Introduction: Gastrointestinal (GI) adverse reactions are the main complaint of patients receiving metform in and caused approximately 5% of patients to the extent that discontinue their medication or compliance impaired. Objective: The study aimed was to reduce GI disturbance in patients receiving met form in with a primary endpoint to improve patient’s outcome by reducing HbA1c and patient satisfaction. Methodology: This study was conducted on 203 patients receiving met form in and can’t tolerate GI disturbance. The intervention is to conduct patient’s education and counseling using pharmacist’s skills and knowledge. Patient’s improvement outcome was measured using HbA1c and visual analog scale (VAS) for pain. Student t-test was used to compare HbA1c before and after education. Results: The most common GI symptoms reported were flatulence, abdominal pain, loss of appetite, nausea, heartburn, vomiting and others. Pharmacist intervention went with many methods to overcome GI adverse effects. This study showed a significant HbA1c reduction after patient’s education and counseling. The impact of the education was also shown in VAS with a linear regression of the pain and patients satisfaction. Conclusion: Pharmacist intervention including medication review, patient counseling, telephone and face-to-face follow-up were associated with lower GI disturbance, improved patients’ quality of life, higher patients’ adherence and therefore decreased HbA1c. The main implication of this study that “patient education” reduced GI side effect, increase patient compliance, and improve patient’s quality of life.